


Teardrop

by Greytracing



Category: We Know the Devil (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Coming Out, F/F, Seven Minutes In Heaven Game, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 19:01:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21361114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greytracing/pseuds/Greytracing
Summary: Neptune gets her seven minutes in heaven with venus and uses it for good.
Relationships: Neptune/Venus (We Know the Devil)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 41





	Teardrop

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first actual published Fic and it is ENTIRELY self indulgent, criticism welcome! also yes, I made Venus wear the skirt from the dare. I may make a follow up to this at somep point

From the dusty darkness of the broom closet Neptune has to blink as that flickering light from the old shitty light bulbs marches into the small space like an army. It advances in around Jupiters silhouette as she practically stumbles out, there’s an awful cheesy metaphor there that makes neptune have to stifle a giggle, poor girl. She can see Venus now bathed in that sodium glow, He seems smaller, further away. More so than usual even. He’s doing that thing that he does when he thinks nobody else would be watching him as he watches everyone else. Neptune is familiar with those little ticks, the slight head tilt, the restless hands either tinkering absentmindedly with a radio or curling one of his blonde locks around and around his finger, He really thinks he knows how to people, he really thinks nobody would even think to watch him.

Seven minutes in heaven was the best most awful idea in hindsight, Venus suggesting it was practically the icing on the cake, there’s things it’s easier to talk about in the dark, things that are easier to do, easier to imagine. She calls out to him now, putting on that voice, all singsong and terrible that she knows will turn him into a deer caught in the car headlights. “C’moooon Venus I can’t be here waiting all night, you suggested this so you can’t avoid playing”, she’s sure she overdid it that time the look is Less like car headlights and more like long distance freighter beams. Venus grips the hem of the skirt like a frightened animal, god, the skirt. What a stupid dare Neptune had felt she had to be really sure about Venus and that had been the metaphorical smoking gun, the final clue. Her very own “elementary dear watson moment” in hindsight it was almost cruel but sometimes love had to be a little tough.

Venus steps are hesitant Jupiter, still in a daze practically walks into him as he pads softly over to that closet, From where she’s sitting on the dry and dusty floor Neptune watches the other girl absentmindedly settling down, she hasn't even touched the hairband yet. Venus moves like a ghost, in the glow of the shitty lightbulb and through the haze of that awful and worryingly undefinable booze it almost seems to neptune like he’s flowing, blurred at the edges a little.

When you spend a summer watching all the kids around you, the really bad really good kids you tend to pick up things. You learn so much about people when they think you’re not really looking. Pretend not to care and pretend to always be on your phone and you can do nothing but watch and pick at those around you. Find out ways to be awful that other people aren’t quite astute enough to learn. But sometimes the worst kids try to be good so bad, they bottle up all the things they are to try to please a god that would hate them anyway, sometimes it’s hard to hate everyone around you when they’re as saccharin as coffee sweetener and full of hurt that they think nobody else will see, It’s hard when you start to wish you could make them whole. Let them be who they could be, Bleed out that fake goodness and leave them better for real. Neptune smiles in the dark, a wan smile but filled with some kind of sadness, The Devil really has nothing on her sometimes.

Venus looks sweet in the dark, she stares off a little above neptunes left shoulder, unlike Neptune her eyes haven’t quite adjusted to the dark yet. Neptune mulls over that in her head, “she” sounds much more right, knowing what she knows about Venus it won’t be long till she can say it out loud but it feels like she’s taking something from the blonde girl by thinking about it all this way but hopefully things will be better soon, for all three of their sakes.

Neptune rests her head in her hand and pulls herself together a little, the booze is still playing pink elephants across her brain. “Nice skirt huh” Venus practically squeaks, Neptune can only see her in shades of greys in the darkness but she’s probably gone scarlet after that one, maybe she ought to hit the gas a little, wind it in a tad. Sometimes you need to be more therapist than interrogator. “Well uh.. I mean I guess I just forgot haha” Venus is practically shaking, pour soul. “It looks nice on you Venus”, the quiet is like an ocean trench for a minute there but Neptune is tired of words hanging in the air like that unsaid so she presses on “Do you like it?” The blonde looks down, even in the dark here her pale complexion almost makes her glow, Her brow is knotted and Neptune can practically see the war going on just behind her lips.

They’re pretty lips too, Venus goes through more chapstick than both Neptune and Jupiter put together and she probably uses all of those little bottles of skincare stuff every night huh. That would be very Venus a kind of fastidious ritual, something she’d seen the other girls do but never quite understood why they thought it such a chore. Yeah that’s Venus, sometimes she’d so clearly caught up in her own thoughts and daydreams she’d nearly walk into a tree and sometimes she’d watch other girls from a little distance away, and she’d think nobody else was looking and nobody would see how wistful she’d look. It’d make Neptunes heart ache sometimes.

In the hot and heavy silence Neptune lets herself do the Bad Thing. Bridging that little gap, less than a foot between them feels like jumping the grand canyon, she lets her hand rest on the blondes thigh. She’s about to internally chide herself for making such a risky move, waiting for Venus to flinch back but the girl feels soft under her fingers. Soft and shaking. Neptune is barely inches away from venus now, both girls can see each other clearly now in the dark, Neptune wishes she could kiss her properly. A real movie kiss, all fireworks and magic but Venus is like a flower growing in the dark. She’s too fragile.And Neptune feels it, that fear, an abyssal depth below her full of fear. Fear of hurting, fear of ruining, She kisses Venus’s cheek, It’s soft and warm from her blush. Venus doesn’t flinch away, she doesn’t break down, she doesn’t recoil from Neptune and that abyss closes up. Neptune feels like she’s doing the right thing. A rare joy.

“There’s something you want, something that you’re carrying like a millstone around your neck. I know what it is” Venus freezes for a moment like a rabbit caught in a flashlight, Neptune powers on “But I need you to say it, It’ll only be real if you say it and if you don’t I’m gonna lock us in this closet all night till you do and I won’t move my hand or let you shuffle away either” Neptune cringes slightly, maybe that was a little too much for the poor thing. “I, uh.. Yeah, uh” Venus is practically stammering at this point but Neptune can feel the girl taking those deep breaths, like a free diver, like an Olympic sprinter getting ready, full of fear and anticipation. Neptune feels her controlled harshness slip away, like shedding skin it rolls off her like oil. She lets her hand trace the contour of Venus jaw along from her ear to the tip of her chin, the smaller girl almost shivers to the touch still a storm of emotions within.   
Sometimes kindness has to hurt, like iodine on a cut, like pulling off a band-aid. Neptune knows this kindness, sometimes you have to break and bone to set it right and sometimes you have to make a girl cry just to see her smile for real. Venus is smiling now, it’s faint and nervous and it lights up her face like the moon on a clear night

“I’m scared of making it real Neptune, if you know I and I know isn’t that enough? I’m sorry, it’s just so hard to make the words, to say them out loud” Her voice has a different quality now, inflections of sadness and fear but a tenderness too, words like “our secret” ''things that happen in the closet” float in the hot and heavy air between them. Neptune lets a little of that harsh tone slip back into her voice “If you hold them back, if you can’t say it now you it’ll only hurt you more Venus, that’s your problem. You think that hiding it, faking it and pretending you don’t hurt is right, good or something like that”. “Is it not? I know I’m wrong and bad, I know it’s against god, they never had to say it out loud but you know that’s what it is and if I don’t say it I can escape those stares they’d have for me, I can have some kind of alibi” Venus heart isn’t in though her words sound like bargaining, hollow sentiments “Look, if god is as powerful as they all tell us, and he made us then that’s all on him, he can’t layout rules and fuck up himself like some absent landlord” Venus freezes at the obvious blashphemy but Neptune powers on “I don’t care if it’s wrong by him I don’t care about god and the devil and if they want you for what you are, for what you’re scared to say then they’ll have to get through me first and I’d like some words” Neptune feels herself righteous anger, she has had plenty of words she was scared to say too “It’s like stupid rules and commandments that don’t make sense, I get not killing but they can’t tell us how we are is wrong it’s a fantasy crime and i won’t obey that law, like jaywalking” “YOU JAYWALK??” Venus sounds genuinely shocked, Neptune can’t quite keep herself together, the laugh rises from the depths like a tsunami, she can barely keep herself upright looking down and nearly toppling over, moving her hand from Venus thigh to her shoulder to keep balance, as the laughter subsides she gets ready for the inevitable coughing but it never comes. the laughter ebbs back as she looks Venus in the face again, she looks like she’s ready to burst out giggling or crying at any moment caught up in the strange manic moment. “Look Venus” Neptunes tone is like molasses “I don’t kiss boys anymore and I’m gonna need you to say it, make it come true because I can’t not kiss you again, for real this time”

Venus almost glows as she blushes, she turns her eyes downwards like a prayer. Neptune feels like she is on a precipice here walking the edge but there’s no roll of thunder or smiting strike of lightning, no fiery pit opening up below her. Time doesn’t pass quite right in the closet, and when Venus speaks again her voice isn't far away or whisper quiet, there’s a steel to her voice like a battlecry something that not even Neptune though she could muster, “I want to be- No that’s not right I think i am- , I know I’m trans” she still stumbles over the words struggling to steer them part her lips trying to to get wrecked on the rocks. Neptune is really smiling now, it feels like it’s bubbling up straight from her heart Venus isn’t looking away now either her smile is far shyer, smaller. Neptune can see that she’s still probably expecting that smiting lighting bolt or some divine punishment but somehow knowing they won’t come. Her eyes are up now, as if she’s expecting the words to really start crackling in the air like a spell

Neptune lets her hand rest on Venus thigh again, it feels different somehow, More real. And in the dark Neptune feels venus hand touch her other hand, softly shaking slightly with the effort of the action, like she’s moving mountains and they both intertwine fingers like a knot. And in the darkness and the afterglow of words Neptune doesn’t even notice she’s fulfilling her promise somehow kissing Venus seems like the only possible thing she could be doing in that moment. It’s a proper kiss too, maybe there aren’t fireworks or a fanfare but kissing Venus is like tasting the sun on a late autumn afternoon, she’s warm and vulnerable and in Neptune's humble opinion, not nearly as good at it as her. Neptune lets her hand move softly across the girls thigh along the outside of it, letting her hand hover but never lose contact. She’s sure if she tried the other side Venus may actually burst into a puff of steam from all the emotions but even this touch is causing her to make soft noises into Neptunes mouth, She almost wants to open her eyes to see the girls face but that might be a little too cruel. 

When she pulls away Venus looks like she could be glowing in the non light of the closet. Like some strange flower blooming in the dark, she seems different, imperceptibly but it’s like somebody has untied all the little knots keeping her bunched up, like she’s no longer trying to escape into herself. “Not bad for a first kiss huh” Neptune puts a little bit more tease into the words than she has in a while. “No uh, I’m not that sheltered I’ve kissed befo-” “No, you shut up you’re a girl now so it resets and I got you first so I win” Neptune draws little figures of eight on the girls thigh, feeling her shiver at the slightness of the touch. Venus is smiling for real now, but there’s also tears in her eyes threatening to burst the dam and flood everything. Neptunes heart is riding the tides of emotion now. “Were you waiting till I said it too before you turned on the waterworks” “No, I just,” she sighs, it’s a shuddering sigh, little tremors before the real sobbing “How did you know Neptune, am I that bad at hidin-” “No” Neptune has to cut her off “It’s not something that everyone else knows but you never knew they did, I’m just a bad kid who knows aaaaalll about the things you’re not meant to know and you” Neptune takes her hand off the Blondes thigh leaving Venus for a moment looking disappointed, (something Neptune is definitely gonna keep in mind now) and runs her fingers through that almost platinum hair, gently teasing through as Venus lets out a shuddering breath almost rising to the touch. “You Venus aren’t as good at watching people as you think you are, you don’t seem to notice the way you look at them and you definitely don’t notice me watching you” “I-I thought, well with you and Jupiter and how that is you know” she trails off a bit, a small shake in her voice but Neptune lets her hand drop down now, cupping Venus’ face and looking her dead on “C’mon do you really think I’d be satisfied with just one pretty girl, I mean seriously” they both laugh, Venus still sounds nervous and the hey eyes are still wet with tears but her laugh is like a bell, clear and real. 

“Okay it’s surely been MUCH longer than seven minutes” Venus let’s out a half shrug as she stands up again brushing off dust “Well I didn't even bother setting a timer for you and Jupiter” “WOW you really are the worst, your own game and you don’t ev-” Neptune is rudely interrupted by gravity and alcohol as she starts topping while getting up. Venus manages to catch her pulling her back upright and struggling to contain a giggling fit. “That was almost slick vee” Venus laughter doesn’t seem nervous now. Neptune lets her arms wrap around her pulling her closer and laying her chin in the crook of Venus neck. Hugging Venus like this isn’t like Jupiter who’s nearly half a foot shorter in fact if Venus didn’t have a lifetime of annoyingly good posture behind her Neptune is sure she’d be taller than the short haired girl. Venus has nestled her head almost in Neptune's mane of hair. “Thank you” the words are simple but they carry a weight Neptune knows must be hell the bare alone, “You’re not allowed to get sappy on me vee, you deserve this” Venus hums out an “uh-huh” as she relaxes into the hug. “You need to stop acting like you’re the worst, most terrible influence on us Neptune, It’s unkind and untrue, even the drinking and stupid games” Neptune snorts at that but Venus ploughs on “those things aren’t making us bad and they don’t make you bad, even if that alchol is literally the worst” Neptune let’s that settle for a moment, she lets herself drink it in. “Nice one shakespeare, probably the most moving speech since braveheart” “shut up” Venus mutters into Neptunes hair “wow new Venus new attitude huh” Now will let’s open this closet door so this can be a REALLY awful metaphor. Venus laugh sounds like sunbeams, and golden skies, it’s like reflections on lakewater playing lights on the trees. Like the all the parts of summer that glow


End file.
